Have you read Promised Secret yet? This is a bonus scene that takes place after the book. You can read Promised Secret here.
Dan
“We’re not leaving until we’re drunk!” Jones drooped an arm around me and shouted, his words slurred.
Ryker was on his other side, laughing and clearly drunk already. Clay was beside me, and he was the most clear-headed one out of us.
The four of us decided to take a spontaneous weekend trip to Vegas. It started when Clay watched Wren’s latest video in Vegas and mentioned how he’d always wanted to visit. If it was something Clay wanted, I was going to do my best to make it happen.
The trip was supposed to be a romantic getaway for the two of us, but Jones and Ryker caught wind of it and wanted to come too. Their partners weren’t able to join us, so it was just the four of us.
It felt like old times again, just me and my boys, except there was one very important change that I never thought would be possible.
Clay looked at me with a soft smile, then slipped his hand into mine to twine our fingers together. And maybe it was the alcohol running to my brain, but fuck if he wasn’t the most handsome person I’d ever laid my eyes on.
Who was I kidding? Even if I was stone-cold sober, Clay was still the most perfect person I knew. It was a fact I’d come to terms with when I realized my crush on him as a kid, and it’d only became truer now that we were actually together.
My smile turned goofy as I brought the back of his hand up to my lips for a kiss. Just the fact that I could do this simple action sent butterflies into my stomach.
Clay’s smile turned into a full on grin. Everyone might call me charming, but Clay was the real charmer here. All he had to do was flash a smile my way to completely capture me under his spell.
“None of that now!”
Jones waved a hand between our faces to interrupt our moment, causing Clay and I to take a step back from each other. He stopped in the middle of the sidewalk and placed a hand on his hip as he glared at us.
Strangers sent us annoyed glares for pausing in the middle of the sidewalk. They were probably used to the drunken antics of tourists and smoothly stepped around us.
“I know you two are in love and all that shit,” Jones said, pointing a finger between the two of us. “But if I have to spend the weekend missing my partner, then you two don’t get to rub your love in our faces!”
“Yeah!” Ryker repeated, sounding more drunk than I’d seen him in a while. “I miss Sam,” he said, his previous enthusiasm quickly fading.
Jones nodded, his eyes half-hooded as he looked up to the sky. “I wonder what Ryan and Kayla are up to. They’re probably cuddling Lily and Sunny right now,” he commented with a tone of jealousy in his voice.
Ryker and Jones somehow ended up in each other’s arms. These two giant men hugged each other while crying about missing their loved ones. I wanted to laugh at the sight, but I knew I would be in their shoes if Clay wasn’t here with me now.
As if thinking the same thing, Clay found my hand again and pulled me close to him. I snuggled into his side and enjoyed the free entertainment our friends were providing us.
“Do you think they miss us?” Ryker asked.
“They must. We’re so miss-able!” Jones replied loudly.
“We are so miss-able!” Ryker agreed. “You’re amazing, you know that?”
“No, you’re amazing!” Jones called back. “You’re the brother I never had. I love you!”
Jordan would be sad to hear that he’d been forgotten. I didn’t point out to Jones that he had a biological brother, since they probably wouldn’t remember any of this tomorrow anyway.
He laughed toward the sky and slung an arm around Ryker’s neck and tugged hard. He was using so much strength the veins on his muscles strained. Ryker didn’t seem to notice, though, and continued laughing.
“You know what we should do?” Ryker said. He was rocky on his feet now, swaying despite us standing still. “We’ll seal our brother-ship with a pact of blood!”
“That’s an amazing idea!” Jones called weakly, his lids not even fully open anymore.
They both turned and Clay and me. Ryker’s eyes were shining, and Jones had his lids fully closed now, but his head was still turned our way.
“Aaand that’s our cue that we’re done for the night,” I commented and pulled them apart before more crazy ideas went through their heads. “Let’s get you guys to bed.”
“No! I can still drink!” Jones tried to lift a hand into the air, but it flopped right back to his side.
I pulled his arm around my shoulder to support his weight and saw Clay do the same for Ryker. Thankfully, we weren’t too far from our hotel and made it to their shared room without either of them throwing up.
“Best brothers everrrr…” Jones murmured as I plopped him on his bed. He snuggled into his pillow and was passed out before I could tuck the blanket over him.
Ryker was snoring when I looked over to his bed. Clay shook his head as he looked at our two friends, but there was an amused smile on his face.
Clay walked around the bed to get to me and pulled me into his arms.
“We tried doing the brothers thing and that obviously didn’t work,” he teased and pressed a kiss to my temple.
I chuckled and held him close. It didn’t hurt as much now thinking about all the years I’d had to keep my feelings a secret from him—from everyone. But that didn’t mean it was a fond memory for me.
Being brothers with Clay was something I never wanted. But being family in a different way… An idea nudged me, and the more I thought about it, the better it sounded.
“Say, you know it’s our last night in Vegas,” I commented.
“That is it,” Clay replied, clearly unsure where I was going with this.
“And wedding chapels open really late around here,” I continued.
“Are you saying…” Clay furrowed his brows.
I was sorely unprepared without a ring or a plan, but that didn’t mean I was acting frivolously. I’d wanted to be with Clay since I was a kid, and that had never changed in all these years.
I took Clay’s hand and dropped to one knee.
“Will you marry me?”
Clay
I stared at Dan with my mouth gaping open. He was on one knee with his eyes shining up as he looked at me.
Even though I didn’t drink much tonight, so I couldn’t be drunk, his question still rang in my ears and made me dizzy.
Will you marry me.
Marry Dan?
I hadn’t really thought much about that. Even without a piece of paper saying that we were legally bound together, I planned on staying with Dan forever.
I pulled Dan to his feet.
“Did the alcohol get to your head?” I asked.
I didn’t think he drank much tonight—definitely not as much as Jones and Ryker had—but he must be more drunk than I thought to be saying this out of the blue.
“No? Why would you think that?” Dan asked, confusion clearly written on his face.
“Because you just asked me to elope with you. That has to be drunk talk,” I replied. My heart pounded in my chest as the words rolled off my tongue. We’d never talked about marriage before, but now that he’d put it out there, I couldn’t stop thinking about it.
Dan took a step closer until our feet were sandwiched between each other. He wrapped his hands around my waist and pressed our chests together.
“Drunk talk? Trust me when I say I’ve never been more clear-headed. I love you, Clay. We’re definitely not cut out to be brothers—”
I couldn’t stop the amused snort that came out of me. Dan smiled too.
“But I want to show the entire world that we are family and that’s never going to change. It’s you and me forever. I want to call you my husband and proudly show off the man that I love to the entire world.”
Dan’s eyes were clear as he looked at me. His gaze pierced right though me and called to my soul. Here was the best person I knew—the man who’d become my everything—proposing what had to be the craziest idea I’d heard, and yet nothing sounded better to me.
My heart was in my ears as I untangled myself from him and dropped to one knee. Dan’s eyes widened comically, but a smile full of joy bloomed on his face as I took his hand.
“Dan, I love you more than anything. I would be honored to call you my husband, so will you marry me?”
He laughed and shouted a resounding “yes” while pulling me back to my feet to kiss the hell out of me. I laughed too, loving the taste of happiness on his lips.
Groans sounded from beside us and we both froze to turn to the beds. Jones turned over on his side, but thankfully our loud shouts didn’t wake our friends up.
Dan’s eyes met mine again, and we shared a smile.
“What do you say we get out of here, fiancé?” he said with a grin.
“I love the way that sounds, but don’t get too used to it, ” I whispered back and sneaked in another soft kiss to his lips before leading us out of the room. Once the door was fully closed behind us, I pushed Dan so his back was against the door. “Soon, you’ll be calling me ‘husband’.”
A delighted rumble came from Dan, but the sound was cut off with my lips meeting his. I didn’t need a marriage license to know that we belonged together, but it was just the cherry on top. It was a document that claimed Dan as legally mine, and I was the luckiest man in the world to have that honor.
Dan had stars in his eyes when I pulled back. I’d make sure he’d always looked at me like this. With love and affection. Like I was the only person that existed for him.
Because the day he came into my life, he’d become my entire world.
Up next is the last book in this series: Promised Chance
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